Reckless bus drivers making roads risky

Paul Robertson, pictured at the site of a tourist bus rollover on Princetown Road, says “something needs to be done” to improve safety for locals and tourists.

A Colac district delivery driver says more police targeting tourist buses could be a way to improve safety for tourists and motorists sharing the district’s roads.

Paul Robertson, who was among the first on the scene of a 20-seater bus rollover at Cooriemungle on Saturday, said there needed to be more policing of tourist routes to “put drivers off the road” if they were driving dangerously.

The Grand City Tours bus rolled on Princetown Road, south-west of Simpson, injuring six people, but the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

Mr Robertson said he had helped the injured driver and passengers, who received fractures and “nasty” head injuries in the crash, and he certainly didn’t want to come across another crash.

He said he no longer took the same route as the buses when he was making deliveries if possible, choosing not to use Princetown Road because of the risks.

“I won’t come that way anymore; I’ve had them come up over a rise in the middle of the road, and the number of buses that travel one behind each other, trying to pass each other, you see it constantly,” Mr Robertson said.

“We were driving the other day and there was a bus coming the other way and the driver had one hand on the wheel and the other holding a selfie-stick out the window.

“You see them constantly on the phone while they’re driving.

“Something needs to be done and as summer approaches it’s only going to get worse.”